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Craig City Council Feb. 24 meeting recap

Janelle O'Dea
Kevin Booth, manager of Yampa Valley Regional Airport, updated the Craig City Council at the Feb. 24 meeting on what the airport is working on and how many passengers used the airport in the 2013 to 2014 ski season.
Janelle O’Dea

Other action items approved by the Craig City Council, 7-0:

Ordinance 1042, a supplemental appropriation ordinance to carryover budgeted 2014 projects or commitments not accomplished in 2014 into the 2015 budget, second reading

Ordinance 1043, an ordinance amending chapter 9.30 of the Craig Municipal Code entitled “alcohol and drugs” by adding certain provisions concerning the extraction of marijuana concentrate, first reading

— At the Tuesday night Craig City Council meeting, the Shadow Mountain Village improvement project, Yampa Valley Regional Airport and Colorado Northwestern Community College were the main topics of discussion.

The project came in under Tipton’s original estimate and will cost Shadow Mountain residents $9.09 per month, said Director of Moffat County Development Services Roy Tipton.

The amount is lower because of environmental assessments done by Tipton, which allowed forgiveness of one of the loans.



Other action items approved by the Craig City Council, 7-0:

Ordinance 1042, a supplemental appropriation ordinance to carryover budgeted 2014 projects or commitments not accomplished in 2014 into the 2015 budget, second reading

Ordinance 1043, an ordinance amending chapter 9.30 of the Craig Municipal Code entitled “alcohol and drugs” by adding certain provisions concerning the extraction of marijuana concentrate, first reading



They’re planning to award the best-qualified bidder on Tuesday and begin construction as soon as possible in April, Tipton said. Rundle Construction will return at approximately the same time and finish phase one of the project.

“I just want to give Roy a hand too because of all of the extra work he had to go through with environmental assessments to get the debt forgiveness,” Moffat County Commissioner Chuck Grobe said.

After the Shadow Mountain update, Kevin Booth, manager of Yampa Valley Regional Airport, gave an update about the airport. Booth arrived six weeks ago to begin his position as airport manager.

70 percent of winter vacation visitors arrive through YVRA, Booth said. It employs, direct and indirectly, 433 people in the winter season. YVRA saw 186,672 passengers in the 2013-2014 winter season.

YVRA has one of three 10,000-foot runways on the west side of the Front Range, and Booth said YVRA is the seventh busiest commercial airport in Colorado. The Federal Aviation Administration classifies the Yampa Valley airport in the same class, a tier one airport, as Denver International Airport, Booth said.

Booth also discussed projects the airport is working on, including a new water tank to improve fire protection, a runway construction project that will close the runway for 60 days this spring, a switch from Galaxy Aviation fixed base operator to Atlantic Aviation and remodeling the airport parking system.

The one challenge YVRA faces right now is a 32 percent decrease in passengers from 2008 to 2014.

“We could handle a 50 percent increase tomorrow,” Booth said. “We desperately need to attract more visitors to our area.”

Vice-President of Colorado Northwestern Community College Craig campus Janell Oberlander introduced herself to council after the YVRA update from Booth.

“I just reached my one-month anniversary, and I’ve had a fabulous month,” Oberlander said. She said she’s enjoyed all of the time she’s spent on community college campuses.

“I went to college and never left,” Oberlander said.

Oberlander provided enrollment updates for CNCC’s spring semester. The campus has 392 students, with 127 high school students included in the number. From last spring, CNCC has experienced a 12 percent increase and the Craig campus contributed the largest part of that increase, Oberlander said.

“Teaching students how to become students” and a change in class scheduling procedures are helping to attract more students, Oberlander said.

“I think the hiring and steering committee could have hired a body a long time ago, and I appreciate the zeal you bring,” said Councilor Joe Bird.

“The college plays a big role in our community and we have a lot of room to grow,” Don Jones, mayoral candidate and city councilor said.

Current Craig Mayor Terry Carwile said he is excited to see the economic drive potential of the college come to fruition.

The council ended the meeting with a discussion about possible projects for the Associated Governments of Northwest Colorado technical assistance grant application. The city could receive up to $10,000 and the county could receive up to $10,000, as well.

Dan Davidson from the Museum of Northwest Colorado said a brief idea was to do a statue with a list of names of the people killed in action during World War II time period. Davidson said they also wanted to recognize family members, as well.

“We also want the names to be linked into the website, whether it’s a QR code or something else, so people can look into the history of that person,” Davidson said. “I want young people to be able to understand the kind of sacrifices that were made on their behalf.”

Contact Janelle O’Dea at 970-875-1795 or jodea@CraigDailyPress.com or follow her on Twitter @jayohday.


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